Wishing all of you a very happy holiday season, and looking forward to seeing all of you at the annual Christmas party at the Redwood Grange. The year sure has gone by quickly; it doesn't seem that long ago that we had elections.

Not much to say, except for a reminder that we will be setting up some ham radio training classes in January and we will be looking for some assistance to do this. Please let me know if you are interested in helping out.

Would also like to congratulate those who upgraded and passed the various exams at the last VE session. It's a lot of hard work and you have done well.

See you at the Christmas party.

73, Dennis Recla, WA5KTC

Another year has flown by. Hope you had a good year in ham radio. Communicating by voice sure beats the impersonal internet experience! We need to get this message across to the younger generation.

Don't miss the SOARC Christmas Party/Potluck/Gift Exchange this month. Bring your own table service(s), a covered dish, and a gift for each person in your party. You will have fun and leave with a full belly!

We will have our annual election of officers and board members at the January meeting. Please consider how you may be able to serve your club.

Don't forget--you can list your "for sale or trade" or "wanted" items in the newsletter. Please limit them to ham or computer-related merchandise or services.

If you have anything to contribute to the Gnus, see the contact information above.

73, Mike Wright, N7GEI

Western Belles is a women's ham radio group that gets together regularly for lunch and all female hams are invited to attend.

Our next luncheon will be at 11:30 on January 7th at Applebee's Restaurant, 250 NE Agness Avenue, Grants Pass.

December 20 1800 - SOARC Christmas Party/Potluck/Gift Exchange

January 17 1800 - SOARC Board Meeting

January 17 1900 - SOARC General Meeting

Election of officers and board members for 2006

ARRL Straight Key Night	Jan. 1, 0000Z to 2359Z
Midwinter CW Contest	Jan. 7, 1400Z to 2000Z
Midwinter SSB Contest	Jan. 8, 0800Z to 1400Z
Kids Day Contest	Jan. 8, 1800Z to 2400Z
070 Club PSK Fest	Jan. 14, 0000Z to 2400Z
North American CW QSO Party	Jan. 14, 1800Z to Jan. 15, 1200Z
Hungarian DX Contest SSB	Jan. 21, 1800Z to Jan. 22, 1200Z
North American SSB Contest	Jan. 21, 1800Z to Jan. 22, 0600Z
ARRL VHF Sweepstakes	Jan. 21, 1900 Z to Jan. 23, 0400 Z

73, Elmer Seutter, W6IGK

Congratulations to Dick Huttenga, KD7WIA, for upgrading to General and Rob Smith, K7HMN, for upgrading to Extra at our VE testing session on November 29th.

An innocent question about the temporary waterproofing of coax connectors unleashed a torrent of ideas on the TowerTalk reflector (http://www.contesting.com). Here are some of the better ones:

• Sections of bicycle tire inner tubes
• Fingers cut from rubber gloves
• Plumber's putty, Silly Putty(R), and duct sealing compounds
• The ubiquitous CoaxSeal(R)
• Long, thin balloons
• CushCraft's PL-259 boots, available direct
• Plastic soda bottles

A few pearls for getting aluminum tubing sections separated :

• Heat the outer tube briefly with a propane torch
• Lots of penetrating oil and/or WD-40 (with extreme care around a torch)
• Continuous twisting in one direction while pulling
• Driving out the inner tube with a steel rod
• Use a handheld cutting tool to "slot" the outer tube

This safety information for RF exposure courtesy of Tom K1KI:
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-255968A1.html.

Ed Hare, W1RFI, the ARRL's RF exposure expert, says, "Controlled exposure is averaged over six minutes. This is not a time limit, but the time period over which exposure must be averaged. If the ham is one meter from the antenna, he is about 40 dB over the limits that require an exposure calculation." Ed points out that the field strength calculations in the near field are not simple.

KA7UKN reminds us of a great way to demagnetize tools or other small metal parts. "I had a screwdriver that was magnetized and it was driving me crazy (no pun intended). I grabbed my trusty Weller 250-watt gun, pressed the trigger, and passed the screwdriver through the loop formed by the tip. In a second or two I had the desired results. It was so fast and so effective that I purposely magnetized the tool over again with the strongest bar magnet that I have. A few passes between the loop formed by the solder gun's tip degaussed the tool. Where has this been all of my life?"

Owners of the venerable Drake C-line radios will be pleased to learn of the availability of the CD-based "Service Part Locator for the Drake C Line" from Garey Barrell, K4OAH. The CD includes complete parts lists, chassis photos, info on the noise blanker board, high-resolution PDF versions of the original manuals, and numerous other tidbits. The cost is $25 postpaid in the US via Paypal (k4oah@mindspring.com) or to 4126 Howell Ferry Rd., Duluth, GA 30096.

The winner of this month's "What Can I Use This For?" prize is a receiving loop made from an embroidery loop. N5ESE's handiwork can be observed at
http://www.io.com/~n5fc/loop_ant.html.

Thanks Gregory, WB7RSG.

Here's the first place entrant in the ongoing Sneaky Antenna Installation Trick Competition. "With respect to getting wires and cables up to the second floor, the standard rain gutter downspout makes a nice "raceway" to run all the cables in that is inconspicuous (it looks just like your other downspouts, can be painted to match, and is big enough to run many cables inside). You could even slit it so that you can slide stuff in and out. The plastic downspouts are even easier."

Thanks Jim, W6RMK.

Recently, I listed the US Navy antenna handbook. Not wanting to slight another branch of the services, the USMC antenna handbook is another good reference. It can be downloaded at
https://www.doctrine.quantico.usmc.mil/htm/doc8.htm.

Thanks Brian, KB9BVN.

The major US automobile manufacturers each publish a guide to installing radio equipment in their vehicles. These are full of good information about grounding, cable routing, noise management, and so forth:

General Motors
http://service.gm.com/techlineinfo/radio.html

Chrysler
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/INSTG01.pdf

Ford
http://www.fordemc.com/docs/download/Mobile_Radio_Guide.pdf

The following website will give customized sunrise/sunset for almost every city in the USA:
http://www.sunrisesunset.com/usa/.

Select your state and city, then select Astronomical Twilight to get the actual sunrise/sunset times for each day of the selected month. It prints best in "landscape" orientation.

The US Naval Observatory site,
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html, is also quite good.

For standalone software, Geoclock is the best, but a simple free program by W4SM is TrakSM which is available at
http://www.keplerian.com.

Thanks George, K8GG, and Matt, WV1K.

Matt, WV1K, also contributes this neat link to a site that lists big towers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Masts.

If your ego is threatened by towers larger than yours, don't go there.

Somewhat simpler and easier to deal with than a ground plane antenna on top band, John, W2GD, recommends the vertical dipole he uses at P40W. The big advantage is that no ground system is required, although ground screens help cut losses. An 80/160 version of the antenna is described at:
http://www.yccc.org/Articles/double_l.htm.

Tuning the antenna is easy – adjust the length of the lower leg. Try to pull the top leg out as horizontally as possible, but it will still work even with a significant angle toward the ground.

Do you have audio questions? Try Shure's excellent educational page on microphones and audio electronics:
http://www.shure.com/support/technotes/default.htm.

Fans of older microphones and such will enjoy the website:
http://www.coutant.org/contents.html.

73, Elmer Seutter, W6IGK

Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through two-meters,
Not a signal was keying up
Any repeaters.

The antennas reached up
From the tower, quite high,
To catch the weak signals
That bounced from the sky.

The children, Tech-Pluses,
Took their HT's to bed,
And dreamed of the day
They'd be Extras, instead.

Mom put on her headphones,
I plugged in the key,
And we tuned 40 meters
For that rare ZK3.
When the meter was pegged
by a signal with power.
It smoked a small diode,
and, I swear, shook the tower.

Mom yanked off her phones,
And with all she could muster
Logged a spot of the signal
On the DX PacketCluster,

While I ran to the window
And peered up at the sky,
To see what could generate
RF that high.

It was way in the distance,
But the moon made it gleam -
A flying sleigh, with an
Eight element beam,

And a little old driver
who looked slightly mean.
So I though for a moment,
That it might be Wayne Green.

But no, it was Santa
The Santa of Hams.
On a mission, this Christmas
To clean up the bands.

He circled the tower,
Then stopped in his track,
And he slid down the coax
Right into the shack.

While Mom and I hid
Behind stacks of CQ,
This Santa of hamming
Knew just what to do.

He cleared off the shack desk
Of paper and parts,
And filled out all my late QSLs
For a start.

He ran copper braid,
Took a steel rod and pounded
It into the earth, till
The station was grounded.

He tightened loose fittings,
Resoldered connections,
Cranked down modulation,
Installed lightning protection.

He neutralized tubes
In my linear amp...
(Never worked right before --
Now it works like a champ).

A new, low-pass filter
Cleaned up the TV,
He corrected the settings
In my TNC.

He repaired the computer
That would not compute,
And he backed up the hard drive
And got it to boot.

Then, he reached really deep
In the bag that he brought,
And he pulled out a big box,
"A new rig?" I thought!

"A new Kenwood? An Icom?
A Yaesu, for me?!"
(If he thought I'd been bad
it might be QRP!)

Yes! The Ultimate Station!
How could I deserve this?
Could it be all those hours
that I worked Public Service?

He hooked it all up
And in record time, quickly
Worked 100 countries,
All down on 160.

I should have been happy,
It was my call he sent,
But the cards and the postage
Will cost two month's rent!

He made final adjustments,
And left a card by the key:
"To Gary, from Santa Claus.
Seventy-Three."

Then he grabbed his HT,
Looked me straight in the eye,
Punched a code on the pad,
And was gone - no good bye.

I ran back to the station,
And the pile-up was big,
But a card from St. Nick
Would be worth my new rig.

Oh, too late, for his final
came over the air.
It was copied all over.
It was heard everywhere.

The Ham's Santa exclaimed
What a ham might expect,
"Merry Christmas to all,
And to all, good DX."

Aloha, Ken, KH6CQH

1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song on an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of hook up and break up.
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up".
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You no longer take naps from noon to 6 PM!
17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. If you're a gal, you go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff."
21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to," replaces, "I'm never going to drink that much again."
23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that doesn't apply to you, and can't find one to save your sorry old butt.

(According to Jeff Foxworthy)

You know you're from the Pacific Northwest IF:

• You know the state flower (mildew).
• You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.
• You use the statement "sun break" and know what it means.
• You know more than 10 ways to order coffee.
• You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
• You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant.
• You stand on a deserted corner in the rain and actually wait for the "Walk" signal.
• You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it is not a real mountain.
• You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best, And Veneto's.
• You know the difference between Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon.
• You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Yakima and Willamette.
• You consider swimming an indoor sport.
• In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark while only working eight-hour days.
• You are not fazed by "Today's forecast: showers followed by rain," and "Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers".
• You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
• You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see through the cloud cover.
• You notice, "The mountain is out" when it is a pretty day and you can actually see it.
• You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still wear your hiking boots and parka.
• You switch to your sandals when it gets about 60, but keep the socks on.
• You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
• You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.
• You knew immediately that the view out of Frazier's window was fake.
• You buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time.
• You often switch from "heat" to "a/c" in the same day.
• You carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them.
• You design your kid's Halloween costume to be warm and watertight.